NFL star Russell Wilson and professional stock car racing driver Kasey Kahn joined forces and raised $1 million for the benefit of the Seattle's Children's Hospital.
The money will be used to fund immunotherapy treatment for children afflicted with cancer, according to The Christian Post. The treatment is said to have a 93 percent success rate.
"We were able donate over $1 million, which really gives me the chills, because that's what life's really all about — us being able to give back and donate," Wilson said of the $1,060,005 raised for the Seattle Children's Hospital Strong Against Cancer initiative.
"God has given me a great opportunity to play the great game of football," he said, "but also He has given us all a great opportunity to share and give back. I think about my kids one day, I think about other people's kids, and I don't want it to be my kids, I don't want it to be yours. So ultimately, it's an opportunity to really save kids' lives, and it's really working, that's the coolest part."
Wilson's foundation, the Why Not You foundation, sought the help of Kahne's foundation and the Safeway Supermarket chain to raise the money for the hospital.
Together, they held a celebrity golf tournament and auction called "The DRIVE," which Wilson and Kahne have been a part of for the past three years. As for Safeway, donation drives were placed in all of their stores to collect money from customers.
Back in 2014, the Seattle Children's Hospital and Research Foundation launched a $100 million initiative to support research that hopes to cure childhood cancer. Wilson was assigned as the "team captain" in the Strong Against Cancer initiative, which put a target to end childhood cancer within the next decade.
"Annually, pediatric cancers receive less than three percent of the National Cancer Institute budget, which is why it's so important for all of us to support initiatives like Strong Against Cancer," Wilson previously said. "The scientists working on immunotherapy have the treatment and the results to get us to a place where childhood cancer is no worse than a common virus. All that's needed now are the resources to bring it to every kid who needs it."
